Notes of a word-watcher, Hanching Chung. A first port of call for English learning.

2015年12月6日 星期日

pervasive, hazing/ ragging, fagging, a big noise

Scenes like this, ranging from civil to aggressive, have played out at colleges across the country over the past month, as Chinese students in the United States have been forced to confront an image of their homeland that they neither recognize nor appreciate. Since the riots last month in Tibet, the disrupted Olympic torch relays and calls to boycott the opening ceremony of the Games in Beijing, Chinese students, traditionally silent on political issues, have begun to lash out at what they perceive as a pervasive anti-Chinese bias.

She says she believes the majority of people supports the Olympic torch. 'The people that are going to the protest, they just are little but they make big noise,' says Ms. Yuan.

她表示﹐相信大多數人都是支持火炬傳遞的。“跑去抗議的人為數很少﹐但弄出了很大的動靜。”

Hazing is an often ritualistic test and a task, which may constitute harassment, abuse or humiliation with requirements to perform random, often meaningless tasks, sometimes as a way of initiation into a social group. The definition can refer to either physical (sometimes violent) or mental (possibly degrading) practices; it may also include an 'erotic' element (notably nudity). The word is most frequently encountered in the United States and Canada; in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries, ragging, fagging or fooling is usually used instead. In Australia, the term "bastardization" is used. In continental European languages, terms with a 'christening' theme or etymology are often preferred (e.g. baptême in French, doop in Dutch in Flanders) or variations on a theme of naïveté and the rite of passage such as a derivation from a term for freshman (e.g. bizutage in French, ontgroening 'de-green[horn]ing' in Dutch) or a combination of both, such as in the Finnish mopokaste (literally "motorbicycle baptism", "motorbicycle" being the nickname for freshmen, stemming from the concept that they would be barred from riding a full motorcycle by their age).

BBC News - UKBy Steve Jackson Japan's PM Yasuo Fukuda has called on sumo wrestling authorities to take action, after the high-profile arrest of a coach and three ...

big fish/gun/noise (USbig shot/wheel) INFORMAL

a person who has an important or powerful position in a group or organization:

She's a big gun in city politics.

He's a big shot in advertising.

a big noise 〔話〕 大物; お偉方.

make (a) noise about …のことで騒ぐ; …について不平をもらす.

make a noise in the world 世間の評判になる, 世間を騒がせる; 有名になる.

make noises （はっきりした発言でなく）煮え切らないことを言う, もごもご言う.

pervadeShow phoneticsverb[T]FORMAL ━━ vt. 広がる, いっぱいになる; 普及する; 浸透する.When qualities, characteristics or smells pervade a place or thing, they spread through it and are present in every part of it:The film is a reflection of the violence that pervades American culture.

pervasiveShow phoneticsadjectiveFORMALpresent or noticeable in every part of a thing or place:The influence of Freud is pervasive in her books.a pervasive smell of dieselReforms are being undermined by the all-pervasive corruption in the country.